Spring-propelled vehicle



Dec. 26, 1922. 1,440,l26

P. P. AUST. SPRHNG PROPELLED Vrimcx4 FILED JUNE 21 1922- 2 SHEETS-SHEET2 Patented Dec. 2d, 1922..

uniren4 erarrts y tirant a@ il PAUL Pf AUST, F CLEVELAND, OHL'O,ASSIGNOR 03E @NERI-3111i FRANK 'S.\HENN,

' OF CLEVELAND, Oli-IH).

srnrne-Pnormmnro vnnrcnn.

Application lecl .Tune `21,

To aZZ whom, t may concern.'

Be it known that I, PAUL P. AUST, a citizen of the United States,residing at Cleveland, in the county of Cuyahoga and State of Ohio, haveinvented certain new and uselul mprovements in Spring-propelledVehicles, of which the following is a specication.

This invention relates to spring propelled vehicles of the small typesuch as toy automobiles capable ol carrying one or `tivo children.` Theprincipal object is to ,pi-cvide a device of this character which issim-A ple otl construction and cheap to manufacture. Another object isto provide a novel braking means and governor y'lier the same. A stillfurther object is to provide means for disengaging` one or the other `ofther-ear Wheels 'from the rotating` axle when thelcar isrunning inacircle or other curve.

.In the drawings Il is a plan "viewof the chassis; Fig, 2 is an enlargedsection on line 2-2 oil' Fig. 1; l? l an enlarged horizontalsectionthrough tlie governor '1d brakemechanism; Fig. fl; 'is ase/eticaon the .line 4.-45of Fig. i1. v y

Referringto the drawings by reference ynumerals 1 and 2 indicate theside :frames of the chassis; 3 and 4f the end `members thereof; 5 andythe cross n'iembers extendingfbetween the sides 1 and 2 and ,betweenthe ends 3 and 4L; 7 and S and 9 indicate cross members extendingbetween the cross members 5, 6 and 4l. 10 indicates tno front Wheels and11 the rear` Wheels thereof. r12 generally indicates the steeringmechanism.

Fastened to the front and rear cross inembers 3 and 4- are one end ofaset coiled springs 13 and 1li havingtheir other ends tached to shea veblocks 15 and lo. (lne end ot a cable 17 `is attached to the trent crossuieinber l as indicated at '1S and extends backward and over they,pulley "19 in the sheave block 16 andthence `t'orward and over thepulley 20 inthe sheaveblock 15; thence backward over a pulley 21 andforwardly .again over a pulley E22 and 'thence rearnardly, through drum23 mounted on a shaft 24 carried in brackets 25, `and over a pulley' 26and thence i'orvzardly again and over a pulley 27 and then rearwardlyand 1922. sel-iai no, 570,025.

is attached to to the cross pieceand carries aWorm 30 on a shaft 31which meshes With a Worm Wheel 82 loosely mounted on thev shaft'2, theWorin Wheel 32 is held beneath the Worm 30 by a depending arm 33projectingdownwardly from the bracket29 and engaging a groove 34 in thehub 35 of the Worm Wheel 32. To the left of the Worm Wheel 32 is a gear36 also loosely mounted upon the shaft 24 and held in its proper' placeby a collar 37. Eetween the Worin Wheel 32 and the gear 36 is a clutchmember 38 which is slid- "ably keyed indicated at 39 to the shaft 24;.and which is adapted to be shifted in eitherI ldirectionby a bell cranke() pivoted vatei and ,operated by an arm 42Whi-ch `in turn is connectedto a pedal carried bythe body of the automobile, not shown. This clutchmember 38is adapted to engage either the clutch tace 43 on the WorinWheel 32 or the clutch tace 4:41 on the gear 36. y,

rl-he shaft 3l extends forwardly and through a bearing-d? carried on the`front cross `piece 3 and has la crank 48 thereon; rlhe clutch mcmberftmaybe tlirowninto engagement with the clutch tacee ot the Worm Wheel'32and then by turning the crank L8 the Worm `30 isturned, conse-k quentlythe Worm 532 and the shaftl 245 through the clutch 38, and yconsequentlythe drum which Will Wind the cable 17 'thereon7 gradually pulling thesheave blocks 15 and 16 toward each other and placingthe springs` and 14under tension. Thegear 36`meshes With agear 19 on a shatvO carried in.bearings 5l on the side member 1 and cross piece 7. A sprocket wheel isalso rigidly connected to the sha-ft and has a sprocket chain 53.connectingythe sprijicket 52- and a sprocket 54 on` the rear axle To runthe ifleviize the clutch member 38 is shiftedl into engagement with theclutch face #le of the gear 36 which when the shaft 2li is rotated bythe action of the springs 13 and 14 will cause the 36 to be rotated andconsecuientljr the gear 4:9, slieaveO, sprocket 52, chain, sprocket 5and arde l The trent Wheels 10 are carried by spire dles 56 pivoted tothe frame at 57, said spindles having rearwardly projecting arms 58 andinwardly projecting arms 59. A cross rod 60 connects the arms 58 and thesteering mechanism is connected to this rod 60 as indicated at 61.

Rods 62 are pivotally connected at one end to the inwardly projectingarms 59 and have theirother.' end connected to arms 63 which are looselymounted on shaft-s 64 carried by brackets 65 on the sides of the frame.Arms 66 are loosely mounted on the lower ends of the shafts 64 andextend rearwardly and each has its rear end yoked as at 67 and has pins68 thereon which engage in a groove 69.--of a'clutch member 70 slidablykeyed on the axle 55 adjacent the rear wheels 11 and are adapted to bemoved into or out of engagement ,with clutch faces 71 on thewheels 11.Coil springs 7 2 are placed between the armsiiand 66one end of thesprings being turned upwardly and inserted in h-oles in the arms v63as-indicated at 7 3 and the lower end being turneddownwardly andinserted in holesfin the arms 66 as indicated at 74. lt will -be seen bythis construction that whenthe .front `wheels 10 are turned in onedirection it will disengage one clutch from its lwheel 11 whereas theother will be forced in `more firmly by the actionof the spring 72 sothat `when the machine is running on a curve the inside rear wheel will4 be released from the shaft 55. This makes'a simple and cheapconstruction to be used in' differential gear.

A `gearv 76 is keyed to the shaft 55 `between the cross members 8 and 9and meshes with a gear 77 loosely mounted on the shaft 78 carried bybrackets 7 9 on the cross meinbers 8 and 9. A. hub 8O extends outwardlyfrom the gear 77 around the shaft 78 and place of a has two bifurcatedarms 81 extending outA from the lforward end thereof. A rms 82 arepivotedttorthe arms 81 and 83 and these arms 82 have a heavy ball 84 onone end thereof and a brake shoe 85 pivotally connected at 86-.to theother end thereof. rlChese brake shoes 85 are lined with a brake liningas indicatedat 87 andthe balls 84 when thrown outwardly due to therotation of the hub 8O will exert a pressure on a drum 88 which ispinned to the shaft 78. The shaft 78 is securely fastened within thebearings 79 and does-not rotate. Slidably mountedl on the 4hub 8O is amember 90 which has a cone face 91 on the front thereof and has a groove92 therein into which pins 93 carried byy cranks94 are inserted. rlhebell crank 94'is pivoted at 95 to a bracket 96andhas one end of a rod 97connected thereto as at 98 and the other end of the rod is bifurcated asat 99 and is connected to a brake pedal -`not' shown carried by the bodyofthe car. When it is desired to slow up they machine or stop it thecone 91 is forced r y i i Y into engagement with the balls 84 by thernder tension by the hand crank, and the power so stored in the springsmay then be utilized to drive the car, the contraction of the springsacting ,to rotate the drum 23 and the parts geared thereto. 0r whenrunning down hill the clutch 38 maybethrown in mesh with the gear 32 towind the springs,

.for the same purpose. As .above described,

the turning of the front-wheels as in steering will release one or `theother of the rear wheel clutches, so that the effect of `a differentialis produced.

1 claim:

1. ln a driving mechanism for vehicles,

the combination of a power shaft, atransmission between the `shaft andthe driving axle of the vehicle, a set of coiled springs carried by thebody of the vehicle, a ldrum on the power shaft, a cable and pulleyconnection between the drum and the respective springs of the set, awinding gear, and a clutch on the power shaft engageable with either thewinding gear or the transmission. y

2. ln a driving mechanism for vehicles, the combination of a powershaft, a transmission between the shaft and the ldriving axle of thevehicle, a set of coiled springs carried by the body of the vehicle, adrum on the power Shaft, a cable and pulley connection-between the drumyand the respective springs of the set, awinding gear, and a clutch onthe power shaft engageable with veither the winding gear or thetransmission, a jack kshaft geared to the driving axle, and a speedactuated brake carried by the jack shaft.

3. 1n a driving mechanism for vehicles, the combination of a powershaft, a Atransmission between the shaft and the driving aXle ofv thevehicle, a set of coiledsprings carried by the body of the vehicle, adrum on the power shaft, a cablefand pulley connection between the drumand the respective springs of the set, a winding gear, and a clutch onthe power shaft engageable with either the winding gear or thetransmission, a ack shaft geared to the driving axle.;V and a speedvactuated `brake y carried by the jack shaft, said brake being alsoprovidedwith means to operateithe sarne'manually.

4. driving' mechanism for vehicle-s comprising a power shaft extendingacross: the middle of thechassis, a drum on said power shaft,transmission mechanism between the power shaft and the driving axle ofthe vehicle, coiled springs at the front and rear shaft engageableeither with said means or l0 ends of the chassis, pulley blocksconnected with said transmission mechanism.

to said springs, and a cable connected at In testimony whereof, I aliXmy signats ends to the opposite ends of the chassis ture in presence oftwo witnesses.

and extending hack and forth between said pulley blocks,` and connectedat about the PAUL P' AUST' middle thereof to the pulley, and means toWitnesses:l manually rotate the power shaft to wind vthe HENN, cable onthe drum, and a clutch on the power' JOHN A. BOMMHARDT.

